Eurozone inflation at 2.2 percent in August 2024: more than halved compared to 2023

Brussels – Inflation in the Eurozone continues to decline gradually: 2.2 percent in August 2024, according to data released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. It also decreased compared to July 2024 (2.6 percent) and more than halved compared to August 2023 (5.2 percent).

The Eurozone average is slightly lower than the European Union, which stands at 2.4 pct. The country results vary.

The best performance came from Lithuania and Latvia, two of the three Baltic countries, with annual inflation rates below 1 percent, followed by Ireland at 1.1 percent.

On the other hand, Estonia saw a rate of more than 3 percent, followed by Hungary, with the same value. Less positive were the data for Poland (4.0 pct), Belgium (4.3 pct), and Romania, with an annual rate of 5.3 percent. Despite this, compared with August 2023, inflation in Poland and Romania has halved, while in Belgium, it doubled.

The main inflation components in the euro area show that services recorded the highest annual rate in August (4.1 percent, up from 4.0 in July), followed by ‘foods, alcohol, and tobacco‘ (2.3 pct, stable compared to July), non-energy industrial goods (0.4 percent, up from 0.7 percent in July) and energy (-3.0 percent, down from 1.2 in July).

Regarding weights for 2024, the most significant component in terms of euro area household final monetary consumption was services (44.9 percent), followed by non-energy industrial goods (25.7 percent). Food, alcohol, and tobacco products, and energy account for 19.5 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Together, they comprise less than one-third of euro area spending but can significantly impact overall inflation, given the greater tendency for prices to fluctuate.